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When I grow up, I want to be like Mike Sando, ESPN’s NFC West blogger.

Sando is always offering something different and new and this time it his chart that rates the retention of last year’s NFL rosters. It should be no surprise for a team that is lining up every 2009 Opening Day starter on defense that the Bengals have the third highest retention rate behind only the Vikings and Cowboys.

The Sandotheorem is reached like so: Add the Week 17 starters, backups, and injured reserve players that remain with the ’09 team, and divide those totals by the sum of 53 plus all players who were on IR lists in Week 17. The Bengals came in at .883 to lead the AFC even though starters Cedric Benson, Domata Peko, Chris Crocker and Robert Geathers were rested in Week 17.

Sando says, “The starter totals can be somewhat misleading for teams that rested key players before the playoffs, but the retention rates apply equally” because every team had 53 players on its roster in Week 17.

It accurately shows which teams are trying to make another run and which are trying to reload. The Vikes (.944) and the Cowboys (.891) led the way. The Bengals lead an AFC North that has surprisingly stayed pretty pat trying to catch them. Pittsburgh is second at (.833) with the 10th-highest retention rate, followed by the Ravens (.821), the 13th. The Browns (.788) are ranked 19th.

Seattle, at .661, and Detroit, at .696, had the most offseason flux. Interesting to note that two perennial playoff teams, the Eagles (25) and Colts (26) were among the lowest in retention. They are also two clubs that always seem to try and get youth in there no matter how well they did the year before.